• @disguy_ovahea
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    10923 days ago

    It’s also the only continent without a southern coast.

    • veroxii
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      3523 days ago

      For now. It used to a few million years ago and will again in another few million.

      • @disguy_ovahea
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        23 days ago

        Are you referring to the magnetic pole switch? That happens every 200-1M years, according to patterns on the seafloor. It’s been estimated that the last reversal was 780,000 years ago, so it theoretically could be any day now.

        With that being said, I doubt that humanity will agree to turn all maps 180° to correspond.

        • @[email protected]
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          2223 days ago

          I thought they were referring to the fact that under the ice its an archipelago, so if the ice melts it will have southern coasts again

          • @disguy_ovahea
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            23 days ago

            Valid point. It’s a shame humanity wouldn’t be around to confirm. lol

          • @fishos
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            123 days ago

            If it melts, they’d all be northern coasts.

            It’s referencing the pole swap.

            • The_Lorax
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              523 days ago

              Since it’s an archipelago underneath then most, if not all, of those islands would have a southern coast. The only way to not have a southern coast is to have the landmass directly on top of the pole, which could only happen for one island (if no ice is present)

              • @disguy_ovahea
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                323 days ago

                To move a continent north of the equator at the rate of 1 CM per year? You might need a bigger napkin.

                Antarctica’s leading coast is 10,000 KM from the equator. Assuming it’s able to continue through Southern Africa at the same rate, it would take 100 billion years to have a northern coast.

                • @[email protected]
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                  623 days ago

                  southern or northern coast. I had deleted my comment already because I misread yours, but I had mathed the time to move away from the pole, producing a southern coast. not time to cross the equator

                  • @disguy_ovahea
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                    23 days ago

                    You’re right, that would create a northern coast. That would be closer to 300M years, assuming it can continue to move at the rate of 1 CM/year, straight through Africa. Antarctica is ~4,500 KM across. The leading coast is only 1,287 KM from the South Pole, leaving 3,213 KM of land needed to migrate from the Pacific side. That would take 321,300,000 years.

        • veroxii
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          1223 days ago

          I was referring to continental drift. Places move a lot in under 200 million years. Eg https://youtu.be/uLahVJNnoZ4

          So my post was a bit sarcastic that eventually it will have a coast but not on any time frame to matter to the human species. :)

        • @[email protected]OPM
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          23 days ago

          Laschamp event! I just edited a related wiki page on late Pleistocene extinctions. Spoiler alert: it didn’t kill the megafauna.